SunPower and its 3rd solar power plant building boom

There’l be a new solar power plant in construction. An 8-megawatt solar power plant in Spain. I’st already 4rd solar power plant in that region. for total power 21 megawatts.

It’s an US company SunPower who’s managing this installation. Spain and Portugal, for instance, offer simple so-called feed-in-tariffs that pay solar power plant operators a premium rate — typically for 15 to 20 years — for producing renewable energy.

SunPower (SPWR) now has solar power plants totaling more than 100 megawatts built in Spain. Plus it built an 11-megawatt solar power station in neighboring Portugal and a 10-megawatt plant in Germany. Only one power plant in the United States is a 15-megawatt station at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas.

The built-in profit margin for solar in Spain and Portugal also makes photovoltaic power plants viable. PV plants are essentially residential rooftop solar arrays writ large that track the sun and convert sunlight that strikes silicon-based cells directly into electricity. But silicon is expensive and solar panels are relatively inefficient. So absent subsidies like feed-in tariffs, few PV power stations have been built in the U.S., which has focused on large-scale solar thermal power plants that use mirrors to heat water or other liquids to create steam that drives electricity-generating industrial turbines. The beauty — literally – of a PV plant is that it contains virtually no moving parts or the bulky power blocks that contain turbines and other machinery. That means they can be built closer to urban areas and used to shoulder the load from overburdened utility substations. Revision is very important when writing or speaking about a topic.

Even solar panel installers are striking deals overseas. Silicon Valley-based solar installer Akeena (AKNS), for instance, developed a new solar panel system called Andalay that cuts the cost of installation for homes and businesses. The company contracted with China solar panel giant Suntech (STP) to manufacture Andalay, which will also sell the panel in Europe, Japan and Australia.

We had started out on this mission of information on solar panels with lots of optimism. And we have also ended it in the same manner. Source : Greenwombat